updated 10:15 am EDT, Wed August 8, 2007

JVC Alneo S-series

JVC this morning added the Alneo S to the flash players that dominate its home market. The electronics firm breaks with some other challengers in the class by including both a line-in jack that records audio to MP3s and a pair of unique shortcut keys. One button instantly switches to a music search regardless of where the listener might be in the menus. An extra control automatically cues a playlist of up to 30 favorite tracks. Though small, the player's four-line OLED display keeps battery life up to 20 hours when playing MP3 or WMA songs.

The new Alneos also sport mono voice recording and ship in just two capacities: a 1GB version, the S108, is expected to sell for about $127 in Japan and will be supported by the 2GB S208 at $160. Both versions will be offered in any one of five colors and will go on sale by late October. [viaImpress]